De Poli nears LPG exit to focus on chemical tankers

Dutch shipping company De Poli Tankers, headed by the Italian shipowner Chiara De Poli, will soon exit the LPG segment to focus on the chemical tanker market.

Broking sources this week reported the sale of the last two LPG tankers in the Italian owner’s fleet, the 2004-built Marte and Venere, but Giovanni Colotto, managing director of de Poli Tankers, in charge of the vessels’ shipmanagement, told Splash that no sales have been closed yet.

Colotto told Splash: “Negotiations for the sale of these two ships are ongoing with the Norwegian group Bergshav but in any case it will be some weeks for the deal to come to a close.” The current market value of the vessels are around $10m.

Colotto further explained that the company decided to focus on the chemical tanker market in 2014, when it ordered a pair of chemical tankers at Ningbo Xinle in China. The company has since been working on its plans, which include exiting the LPG sector.